Nominative & Accusative Basic Rules for Relative Pronouns in German: In German, relative pronouns must be used. When writing, commas must be used before introducing a relative clause Relative pronouns act much like subordinating conjunctions in German in that they send the primary conjugated verb to the end of the relative clause.

Das ist der Hund, den ich gesehen habe. A definite relative pronoun must agree in gender and number with the noun or pronoun to which it refers which is often called the antecedent. The case of the relative pronoun is determined by its use within the relative clause. Das ist der Hund, den ich gesehen habe. Conjugated 1st verb is pushed to the end of the relative clause. Antecedent: Noun which the relative pronoun refers back to. Relative Pronoun: agrees with antecedent in number and gender….changed to reflect that in this sentence it is being used as a direct object, therefore, accusative case. Relative clause is set off by the use of a comma.

Nominativ (Nominative Case) Wann ist ein Wort nominativ? 1) It is the subject of a sentence. 2) The noun appears after a conjugation of the verb sein. (bin, bist, ist, sind, seid, war, warst, wart, waren) or the verb werden. (werde, wirst, wird, werden,werdet, wurde, wurden, wurdest)

Akkusativ (Accusative Case) Wann ist ein Wort akkusativ? 1) It is the direct object of a sentence. 2) The noun appears after certain prepositions. durch – through für – for gegen – against ohne – without um – around entlang – along bis - until

Nominativ Akkusativ der = den die = die das = das die (plural) = die Case/Person Masculine (der) Feminine (die) Neuter (das) Plural (die) Nominative der die das Accusative den Nominativ Akkusativ der = den die = die das = das die (plural) = die der = der die = die das = das die (plural) = die

Wo ist das Buch, ______ ich gestern gekauft habe? One of the easiest ways to begin to understand which relative pronoun to use is to deconstruct the relative clause and place it in it’s normal order, in so doing, it is easier to determine what case the noun is in. Note: Make sure you have a clear understanding of when a noun is nominative or accusative. Let’s look at an example. Wo ist das Buch, ______ ich gestern gekauft habe? Antecedent Ich habe gestern ____________ gekauft. das Buch The book is the direct object, therefore, accusative case….and don’t forget, in the accusative – der changes to den, die and das stay the same.